Made from non-recyclable waste

There has never been a better time to launch a recycled plastic product.

David Attenborough and BBC’s Blue Planet II brought the plight of our oceans into living rooms of 50 countries around the world and the Attenborough Effect was born. Every year 300 million tonnes of flexible plastics (LDPE) are thrown away in the UK alone and plastic waste makes up 85% of the pollution on our beaches around the world.

Both as trend forecasters and materials researchers we have a keen interest in the material innovations related social movements. New on our radar is an inspired initiative to utilise largely unrecycled LDPE such as bubble wrap and carrier bags to create desirable and recyclable objects.

With a cradle to cradle ethos, Brighton-based design studio Gomi melts and compresses LDPE into a solid plastic. This is then used to create modular tech objects, the first of which, a modular speaker will be joined by a portable power bank and wireless phone charger.

The beauty in waste aesthetic is strong here, with each piece bearing the marks of its provenance.

With an aim to offer free repairs for their products and plans to scale up their production Gomi has secured funding from the Environment Now programme and the Santander Big Ideas competition.

They will also be on the Kickstarter platform from February 26^th